INTERMISSION THERAPY SERVICES

INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

We live in a society that encourages individualism. Many people refer back to John Wayne and the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" expectation. Unfortunately, no one can really live life alone. It takes a community or support system to draw out the best in a person. Yet, because of the prevailing myth that everyone should be able to do everything on his or her own, many people spend a good deal of their energy trying to hide their inadequacies.

The therapists at Intermission Therapies have often been honored to be the first with whom an individual will share his or her perceived inadequacies. There are many reasons why therapy works, perhaps the most common being a level of anonymity that is inherent in the confidential nature of the process. Too, the nature of the professional relationship allows for the client to owe nothing to the therapist on a personal level. Therefore the process can be all about the client. This arrangement is freeing, and many people are able to explore important questions or significant issues for the first time in their lives.

A significant body of research suggests that when individuals make personal progress, their family or work environment will shift to accommodate these positive changes. We assist in identifying how a support system of family and friends has influenced an individual's past history, present conditions and future possibilities. It takes courage and curiosity to go through the process of therapy, and most people experience greater clarity as a result of this process.

COUPLE'S THERAPY

Marriage is not a commitment for the faint of heart. A healthy marriage relationship requires hard work, but woven through marital challenges are fragile threads of solid gold. We encourage couples to fight for the gold.

A number of therapists at Intermission Therapies do a marvelous job of sifting through the complexities of a difficult season in a relationship. Some couples seek therapy as a last effort to save a marriage that is tattered and wounded. Granted, there are a few who want to be able to "save face" by saying to relatives, friends or children that they "tried" therapy but it didn't work. The therapist sees immediately that this relationship is in a coma and recovery would require a miracle. But we HAVE seen miracles. We have seen people learn to know and be known. We've watched walls come tumbling down and hope return. If necessary we do have referrals for divorce mediators, but on the whole we prefer to do marital therapy. We do not focus on blame but rather on rediscovering and building on the strengths of the relationship.

Other couples seek therapy to deepen their marriages by better understanding themselves and their relationships with their spouse. There is no magic formula … just hard work, a lot of communication, and growth of the heart. We love being invited to join a couple in their journey toward wholeness.


FAMILY THERAPY

A family is like a body. When one part hurts the rest of the system feels the pain. Some families develop patterns of avoidance to help individuals deny the pain. Some families resort to pain avoidance through addictions, only complicating the problems in the process.

Our therapists are extensively trained in family therapy. A family is critical to its members for survival, support and healing. But occasionally the family itself needs healing before its members can experience the safety and security required to meet their own individual needs.

Although we see many individual clients, we always determine first what their experience was in their family of origin and what their role is in their present family. People frequently replay the dramas of their past in an effort to change them. We help work past this vicious circle to a life of freedom from ineffective or even destructive patterns.

ADOLESCENT THERAPY

Families ideally provide a container in which an individual is safe to grow. All individuals are transformed from infant to adulthood over the span of two decades. The second decade of this growth process is known as "adolescence". Herein is the "tug of war" … the "come here, get away" cycle that baffles parents and frustrates their children.

The end of the necessary identity formation is referred to as "emancipation". Ironically, this is also the term used by Abraham Lincoln as he fought to abolish slavery. However, with freedom comes responsibility, and a young man or woman needs to leave home with a full toolbox of skills for life.

It is not unusual for an "adolescent" to call attention to family dysfunction through "acting out" behaviors. One common reason for this dynamic is for the young person to ask for help in "filling in" the holes in their development before launching into the realities of life outside the familiarity of the family structure. Surprisingly, another reason for a rocky emancipation is that the young adult who is soon needing to leave the family needs reassurance that the family will be able to carry on without the contributions that the exiting member provided.

We frequently find the "identified patient" (e.g. the person struggling to emancipate) is stuck in what we refer to as "triangulation". They need reassurance that they can leave and be reasonably confident that their parents' marriage or other maladaptive patterns in the family system won't come tumbling down like a house of cards when the emerging adult successfully moves on to a life of his or her own.

FEES & INSURANCE

The Intermission staff will be glad to talk with you about fees and insurance. We do ask that prior to setting an appointment you call and verify "outpatient mental health benefits" covered under your plan.